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Book – Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley is the wonderfully whimsical story of a girl who is allergic to human touch. Young Jubilee Jenkins was an oddity in her small town, due to an allergy that seemed too ridiculous to be true. Doctors diagnosed her with a severe allergy to physical contact to other humans. Her body lacked something that all humans possess, an unfortunate reality that caused her to break out in hives at even the lightest touch. As a child, a fatal event nearly takes her life, and so Jubilee becomes untouchable, living alone and hidden from the world for nine years. When her mother passes unexpectedly, Jubilee must finally face the world on her own. Finding solace in her very first job as a Circulation Clerk at the local library, Jubilee slowly begins to open up after an encounter with a struggling divorced father named Eric.

There were a lot of things I liked about this book. I thought the concept was really unique. As soon as I opened the book jacket and read “allergic to touch,” I was hooked. I’m also a sucker for stories involving libraries or working in libraries, so this novel was a good match for me. The only thing that really bothered me was that I thought it ended much too soon and abruptly.